Troy Murphy

Heat GM Pat Riley was undoubtedly pursuing Erick Dampier ever since it was apparent than Joel Anthony was going to spend the season getting tossed around by the opposition like the losing rooster in a cock fight. I mean, this old man has been wooed harder than the 70-year-old billionaires with profiles on eHarmony.

It’s been said that Kevin Durant is an angel, a lamb of a guy; really top-shelf goods inside and out. For the most part, I tend to believe this, but everyone’s got their dark peccadilloes. Some people rub the free cologne samples in magazines over their bodies instead of showering.

The Minnesota brass tried to warn us. They told the whole world Michael Beasley had cleaned up his act, rededicated himself and bought, like, five braid pattern books for his hair in the offseason. And so far, dude is charging through defenses and those cornrow styling publications at an alarming clip.

New Jersey’s stalwart Brook Lopez looks more like a stalled wart so far this season, and nothing improved in the 18+ minutes he played on Wednesday. After shooting .499 in ’09 from the floor, Lopez is writhing around with a .381 FG%.

New Jersey’s Troy Murphy started not only the first game of the season Wednesday, but also his first as a Net. I know to you and me that sounds like bad news, but apparently he was really looking forward to it.

Stephen Curry‘s not a selfish basketball player. No one ever accused him of being one, but after Wednesday’s season opener in Golden State, it should have smacked everyone in the face like the hook of a Katy Perry song. Curry is going to hand the ball off more often than he will dribble five steps past the halfcourt line and start chuckin’.

You gotta love risk. In the end, risk is the reason any of us enjoy fantasy sports. If risk didn’t permeate every facet of fantasy, what’s left? Is that rhetorical or are you asking for real? Meh. Let’s say I’m asking for real.

In a tragedy fit for Dick Van Dyke, Chicago’s Carlos Boozer threw off everyone’s draft rosters earlier this week by tripping over a bag on his way to answering the doorbell and breaking his hand. What is Boozer’s house like that there is no clear path to the front door?

After last month’s report that Baron Davis had ballooned to the weight of Guernsey cow was squashed, it seemed like all was right in La-La Land again. Now reports are that, although he’s not quite bovine, Davis is still paunchy, out of shape and Vinny Del Negro ain’t thrilled about it.